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The 2010 GMOD Summer School - Americas will be held 6-9 May at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, North Carolina. Like previous GMOD Summer Schools, this course will focus on installing, configuring and integrating popular GMOD Components. Sessions will be taught by GMOD Component developers and GMOD staff. There is space in the course for 25 participants, and admission is competitive.

Applications

Admission to the course is competitive and is based on the strength of the application (especially the statement of interest). Last year there were over 50 applications for the 25 slots. The application deadline is the end of Monday, February 22. Any applications received after February 22 will be automatically put on the waiting list. Applicants will be notified of admission status by March 1.

Tentative Program

The program will feature 4 full days of hands-on training starting with an overview of GMOD, and then covering the installation, configuration, and administration of several popular GMOD Components.

This schedule is subject to change.

Date

Time

Session

ThursdayMay 6

8:45am

Introduction and OverviewScott Cain and Dave ClementsParticipant and instructor introductions, how the GMOD project works, what software tools are available in GMOD, how they interoperate, what resources are needed to get a GMOD installation up and running, and course overview

10:25am

VMware and BioPerl SetupEveryoneGet the GMOD Summer School VMware image up and running on your laptop, and then finish installation of BioPerl.

Open Discussion and User PresentationsEveryoneThis session is open to any and all questions you have on the GMOD Project, GMOD Components, and GMOD users. The instructors will come with their knowledge of GMOD and their opinions on the project's strengths, weaknesses, and future directions. Students will also have the opportunity to share work from their projects with the rest of the group.

TripalStephen FicklinTripal is a web front end to Chado databases built on Drupal. This class will introduce Drupal and Tripal architecture, and then cover Tripal installation, configuration and administration.

Prerequisites

The course requires a minimal level of Linux systems administration knowledge (see Computing Requirements). By "a minimal level of Linux systems administration knowledge" we mean that participants should be

Comfortable with the Linux command line interface, and

Comfortable installing packages under Linux.

A good benchmark for this level of knowledge is that you should be able to get a basic GBrowse installation (that is, GBrowse without MySQL) up and running with the example GBrowse data. This also requires installing Apache, and BioPerl and all its dependencies.

System Requirements

Participants are required to bring their own laptops, already capable of running a VMware system image.

The course starts with getting a VMware image (built specifically for the course) up and running on your machine. We then build upon that image in each succeeding session.

VMware on Windows and Linux

A free VMware player is available for Microsoft Windows and Linuxoperating systems from VMware. You will need to register to download it. There are multiple versions. Be sure to download a version that can run on your laptop.

VMware on Mac OS X

Participants can also bring newer Macs with Intel processors. The Intel processor is a requirement for all the packages discussed below. There is no free VMware player that runs directly under Mac OS X. However, there are several other options, all of which require an Intel Mac:

VMware Fusion ($80/corporate, $40/Academic) allows you to run VMware images (as well as Windows and Linux) under Mac OS. We recommend this option for Mac users. There is a fully functional, 30 day free trial version of VMware Fusion available for download.

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is free and open source, and runs on Intel Macs (and Windows, Linux and Solaris too). It claims to be capable of running VMware images, but we have not tested this with our images.

Participants will be responsible for their own travel, lodging and some meal costs. We will offer a block of rooms in a local hotel at a discounted rate of around $85/night, including tax. Participants can share a room to further reduce their costs. The hotel is within walking distance and also will have a free shuttle service to NESCent.

A light breakfast will be provided everyday. For other meals, NESCent is adjacent to Durham's 9th Street District, which offers many dining options, and a grocery store.